From the Wall Street Journal blog:

Dave Snow, CEO of the big pharmacy-benefits manager Medco, is making the rounds to tout his ideas on health reform, the topic of the day with Barack Obama about to take to oath of office. Snow stopped by Health Blog HQ and told us he likes an idea that HHS nominee Tom Daschle has been kicking around: a Federal Reserve for the health-care system.

Snow said the time has come for doctors to follow set protocols on how to treat patients, and to be paid based on whether they do it. Basically, ‘If X, then do Y,’ and ‘If Y, then do Z,’ sort of stuff. Snow concedes the public doesn’t trust the private sector to come up with these kinds of rules. So he wants some smart folks to get together in an “apolitical” body like the Fed, and do it themselves. “I’m fine with this big, national board creating this standard,” Snow says.

Emphasis mine.  So, what Mr. Snow wants is some “apolitical body” much like the Federal Reserve board to create some health care standards?  Laughable.  Apparently, he hasn’t been paying attention to how well that’s working with the financial system.

Back when I had railed against the auto bailout I had said that this won’t be the last time they come asking for money.  When the initial $14 billion was asked for, I knew that within a few weeks GM and Chrysler would be back for more.  So it goes, about a month later they’re right back at the trough begging for more.  Of course, they got it.  But they say they may need even more.  It begs the question, “when will it stop?”

The Finish public health care system is “teetering on the edge of collapse.”  Apparently demise is being blamed on the inability of the state to find doctors willing to fill public positions.  Other than how high it costs and lack of choice that the free market provides, this is probably the second biggest reason I could never support single-payer health care.

Incentives for being great doctors do not, if not rarely ever, exist in the case of public health services.  There is no personal benefit, nor is there any monetary benefit that comes with the territory of being considered a great doctor.  You don’t get your name on the side of a hospital or research center–it’s just another state ran facility that provides a service which could be much better and more efficiently provided by the private sector–at less cost even.

The great move towards privatization will be greatly beneficial for Finland, and any other country that has public health care or moving that way (much like the U.S.) for it will provide a cheaper, safer, and ultimately friendlier more personal health service.  Rather than simply treating you as just another patient–or just another taxpayer as it would be–they must take care of your needs rather than get you in, see you for five minutes, and send you off to the pharmacy with a grab bag full of prescription medicine as it seems they are doing now.

Not to forget, it will hopefully rid us of the ever intrusive nanny state that comes with state health care (and rationing, and waiting lines, and selective treatments, and lack of choice, and higher cost due to wastefulness, and delays due to bureaucratic red tape, etc, etc..)

I was a bit behind the times on this one, but two banks failed on Friday.  The first of the new year.

The first one was National Bank of Commerce of Berkely, IL.

National Bank of Commerce, Berkeley, Illinois, was closed today by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was named receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Republic Bank of Chicago, Oak Brook, Illinois, to assume all of the deposits of National Bank of Commerce.

The two locations of National Bank of Commerce will reopen on Saturday as branches of Republic Bank of Chicago. Depositors of the failed bank will automatically become depositors of Republic Bank. Deposits will continue to be insured by the FDIC, so there is no need for customers to change their banking relationship to retain their deposit insurance coverage. Customers of both banks should continue to use their existing branches until Republic Bank can fully integrate the deposit records of National Bank of Commerce.

Over the weekend, depositors of National Bank of Commerce can access their money by writing checks or using ATM or debit cards. Checks drawn on the bank will continue to be processed. Loan customers should continue to make their payments as usual.

As of January 7, 2009, National Commerce Bank had total assets of $430.9 million and total deposits of $402.1 million. In addition to assuming all of the failed bank’s deposits, Republic Bank agreed to purchase approximately $366.6 million in assets at a discount of $44.9 million. The FDIC will retain the remaining assets for later disposition.

And the second being Bank of Clark County of Vancouver, WA.

Bank of Clark County, Vancouver, Washington, was closed today by the Washington Department of Financial Institutions, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was named receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Umpqua Bank, Roseburg, Oregon, to assume the insured deposits of the Bank of Clark County.

Bank of Clark County will reopen on Tuesday, due to the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, as branches of Umpqua Bank. Depositors of the failed bank will automatically become depositors of Umpqua Bank. Deposits will continue to be insured by the FDIC, so there is no need for customers to change their banking relationship to retain their deposit insurance coverage.

Over the weekend, customers of Bank of Clark County can access their insured deposits by writing checks or using ATM or debit cards. Checks drawn on the bank will continue to be processed. Loan customers should continue to make their payments as usual.

As of January 13, 2009, Bank of Clark County had total assets of $446.5 million and total deposits of $366.5 million. At the time of closing, there were approximately $39.3 million in uninsured deposits held in approximately 138 accounts that potentially exceeded the insurance limits. This amount is an estimate that is likely to change once the FDIC obtains additional information from these customers.

Umpqua will not assume the approximately $117.8 million in brokered deposits. The FDIC will pay the brokers directly for the amount of their insured funds.

Zimbabwe rolls out the $100 trillion note.

Although it will probably fill up your gas tank.  Maybe.  At the time of issue, the note was worth thirty U.S. dollars, but quickly loses value due to the hyperinflation as the cost of things change on an hourly basis.  Obviously, I’m sure you can see how hard that can make it for such an already impoverished and oppressed country as Zimbabwe, much due in part of the Mugabe regime.

For years Mugabe’s regime has been simply printing money to pay off its debt to its bureaucrats, soldiers, and its own set of ‘public works’.  While the government has benefited greatly from the printing press it has long damned the people, forcing them to starve or turn to the black market to get the things they need.

With this it makes one wonder how the United States can continue pursuing it’s own hyper-inflationary policy of lowering interest rates, which are as low as they can get already, and monetarizing debt much like the Zimbabwe regime.

Bernanke, Paulson, and the rest of the banking and financial industries claim to understand and know how to deal with the problem, they claim to hold the intellectual superiority to avoid such a debacle.  Yet all we see is this same policy.  One set to hyperinflate our currency and send prices of goods skyrocketing.

There is a better solution, although, harder politically to accomplish.  It’s the tightening of the belt, sucking it up and just taking the market remedy.  Not that governments shouldn’t do nothing–a strong dollar policy, less government, and lower taxes would be nice.  But certainly they shouldn’t just print money and spend then  expect the dollar to remain stable and our money to continue to be worth something.  If this was the case, Zimbabwe would be the richest nation in the world.

A couple of days ago I had made a post about the porn industry requesting a bailout of $5 billion.  Well, I found a related post by Jonathan Bean over at the Independent Institute very interesting.  It’s titled “FDR and Dirty Dancing: Porn-to-School Act (Or, What I Learned While Studying The New Deal” and introduces a very interesting proposal:

An act to create jobs, stimulate the erotic industries, and make college affordable for Americans age 18-25. This “Porn-to-School Act” will build upon the success of the depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and National Youth Administration (NYA). The act also creates a cabinet-level position, “Secretary of Sex” (SOS) to work in conjunction with the Surgeon General in promoting safe sex practices in this essential industry.

RATIONALE: The erotic industries (pornographic film, pole dancing, legalized prostitution) recruit young people, age 18-25, who have not yet developed the skills to secure more lucrative employment. The Porn-to-School Act will increase turnover in the erotic industries and allow young women (and men) to get the college education they need to compete in our global economy. The influx of erotic work-students will bolster the higher education sector, which is seeking its own separate bailout. Far better to encourage workfare than welfare. Since the goal of the Old New Deal was to take young people out of the workforce, this will achieve that aim while increasing the human capital of those who could not otherwise attend college. This is the “New New Deal” at its best. After all, these young people are our future. And, as proponents of New Deal workfare note, unlike welfare “we get something for our money”—a better-educated citizenry and young people who can proudly say “I worked my way through college!”

Read the rest.

(Note: I can’t take credit for the title of this post, it’s in the comments in the link)